Puzzle



Nov. 9, 1943. F. B. MONROE ET AL 2,333,731

PUZZLE Filed April 29, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 zag/Jr.

Eiga: 1929.6.

J qa qe '[38 6:5 qs 02 I l l -I f A (L -15 VVI 40W EKL@ lib Nov. 9,1943.

PUZZLE Filed April 29, 1942 F. B. MONROE ETAL 2 sheets-sheet 2 PatentedNov. 9, 1943 VI' UNI-TED f eilairrrs.y (Iritzia-115s) This f invention:relatesfto' aiA puzzlefo the type' in which planar piecesfhavingvpliinted'pr Oth'ere'i wise appliedintlcia or:- designs-Lappeariirg there; on are assemblecrsc as -ifto produce ef-.desiredpic; ture or arrangement cr'sdtfjecti-rfnetter 'whiciris theobjectof"the-piizzlet-V j One of the' principal fobj-ectso"tl.ie-inventon is to provide a puzzle composeiilbf'a'plralitymi fiat,fiexible I strips whichjare assernfbld'iti'a'iccin' plete the 'puzzlefby overlppi'fngcand tinteweeving.v the strips; the ltctai.stri-feitearearofrttieccom: pleted Ypuzzle being-.naires vlarge-'aslttieitotaifsu-re faceareafo-f the individual' strips; haiffoffthe strips beinglaid sidebyfsidehcriziitaiiir and the 'other'l half of':` the strips:beingflaid'f sideff byfside vertically; thehcrizciital and'verticai'fstiitisobefing, respectively; 'interwoven toiproperlyvsol'vethe puzzle'. Y' 4 vr Arr-importentaavantagefefaipiigtieor this is that a series orfv pu'zriesmay13e-promulgada an of wnieiiithepiecesereniteciitcgetner infie' similarVi'nainer,` theisubjeetihratteif appearihgn the puzzle pieces;`fl'o'iiqever;''being i arranged-to produce a`variety1offdiili'enti'efrts "te lhol'd tlreA appeal and interest4of'therusers1 and' fteprovide a range in the-tiine-reqixired tivork:clit-:the puzzle. y 'Vv l Since. the strips'which comprise' thepiizzl'e'are designed to beassernbledbyinterweaving or `riiifrs`1r`- lappingcertain portions ofthe "puzzle-strips'tvith portions of 'the otherpuzzlei'stripscertarn areas or portions of the puzzlesti'ips.Willatoifered up when tnepuzzle is 4completed .and-itl isi areature ofour inventionthat such concealedafeas orportions mayV havel designsorfportions of. de.- signs printed thereon in a mannertoccnstitiitefalse clues or decoy elements which, addftothe diculty of discoveringthe proper.soli'itin of the y puzzle. v,

Further objects. and advantages. of.` the. immovements ,in apuzzlewilllbemore ireadilif.. apparent Vfrom the followinadescriptionoiga .preferred embodiment thereofi. as illustrated lin the attacheddrawings. .inwhchz Fig. 1 is -a-plan View oi.A a picture showing anarrangement 4of sh designs..whichisvthevobject of one embodiment ofthe-improvedpuzzleg Fig. 2 is a plan vicwshowing.theses/eral pieces of thesh-.desien puzzle beiore'the:V piecessare put-together;

Fig.- S'is :anplan viewshowing tithe-puzzle. iii fan I incomplete'stage;

1 iishfdesignrlementsrcoriespcrrd tothatvofflilig. 1;

Fig. 5 is fa: planview 'showing 'ther'pieces of a puzzle in` Which'zlettersr aredisplayed: oni the faces-ofthe puzzle: piecesi; i

Fig; 6 isfa pla-n viewshowingsthepiecesscf VFig..` 5 assembled to`complete Ftheipuzzle;

Fig. 7 is a` plarrfvievv` of the :pieces-cf a puzzle in' which the- 1pieces 1 haver4 design elements intended' 'to` appear in.` thecompletedv puzzle and other" design` `elernentsi different,- i-ncharacter which arel intended to beconcea-led (in the' compietedpuzzie;'

Fig. 8fis`a'lp1an'vicvw showing tha-piecesrof Fig- 7 f assembled -toicompletefthe puzzle;

Fig; 941s a plan view- -shcwingfpuzzle vpieces-ofa--furtherfeinbcdimentfof thepuzzle; and' vFig: lOli's fa plan' Viewr'of thefpuzziepieces of Fig. 9 assembledto ff'orm'vthe completed puzzle;

The-puzzle rdisclosedriflg'ssl to 4 will 'first be described; In thistype of puzzle; thepic-turefdes'- ignated'tl .in-Elige 1-.shows'acertainarrangemerrt of a^pluralityof design"e1ementssin this instancecomprising fishesfl'fl; @therd-esigns.and-arrangements couldberu'sedThefcbject of thepuzzie is to combine thepuzzlefpiecesfof Figi. 2 sothat the sh elements appearing thereon 'vare displayed in thesamemanneras ihFig: lr The-ten puzzle pieces-in Figf.-l 2 are -identiedias-.I fto'fl -iinclusivet Each 'of they puzzleivpieces isa iiexiblefpapernstrip having alengthiive timesitsWidth.y It should be :understoodthatchaif4 of the puzzle pieces 'will be laid.` horizontallywhile "therother half of the puzzle pieces.` will be? laid "vertically te completetheA puzzle. Therpies:` |2.- to: I''inclus-ivery are'theverticallysdisp'csed pieces in Fig. 4-While fthe pieces I 1 -to -2i 1inclusive are. thel vhorizcmtally.fdisposed pieces-in Fig. 4.-It-,Willfbenotedfthat each-of the pieces l 24;@ 2lk havez one or more shelements appearing thereon .f and i thatv there fare. more. of thesefelements than-are resgtuired to makfethe picture of Fig.' 1. Some oifthefish elements on thepieces will fbe. coveredv .up -or-Yconcealed in .the

of overlapping portions of a vertical and a horizontal strip. In somecases the horizontal strip is on the upper side While in other cases thevertical strip is on the upper side. The

puzzle pieces may therefore be described as having a total surface areawhich is twiceA as great as the surface area of the completed puzzle.

It will be understood that the pieces in Fig. 2 have been arranged inorder for convenience of illustration but that when it is attempted towork out the puzzle the pieces are all mixed up making it diicult todetermine the proper arrangement or order of the pieces requiring trialand error to solve the puzzle. The presence of the many decoy elementsor false clues add to the diiiiculty of working out the puzzle. Apartfrom any guide that is obtained from the arrangement of the pieces orother subject-matter on the puzzle strips, each of the strips might beused as a horizontal or vertical strip making ten possible positions,and in each position the strip may be turned end for end making twentypossible arrangements for each piece. Finally each piece, even when theparticular location is found. may be interwoven with the other strips ina variety of diierent ways. 'The number of possible arrangements of thepieces may therefore be considerable. For example, to illustrate thedifficulty of starting the puzzle, if it is attempted to select a piecedisplaying the design element 22a in Fig. 4, any one of the pieces I2,I4, I'I or 2| could be tried as a horizontal strip. while none of thestrips could be used vertically to display the lish elements 22a in thecorrect position. For the design element 22h, either strip I8 or 20could be=triedihorizontally while only strip I9 could be triedvertically. For the design element 22C, strips I5, I'I, I8 or 20 couldbe tried horizontally while only strip I9 could be tried in a verticalposition.

The puzzles may take a number of different forms in each of which thepieces may be similar in size and shape and assembled in much the samemanner, but the theme or object of the puzzle may/be made different soas to maintain the interest and appeal in Working out the puzzles.Several different vvariations have been illustrated.

Figs. and 6 illustrate the puzzle in a form in which letters appear onthe puzzle pieces and when the puzzle is put together the letters arecombined to spell Words. For example, the puzzle pieces identiiied as 32to 4I inclusive in Fig. 5 are assembled to complete the puzzle as shownin Fig. 6. In this case the object of the puzzle is to spell out theslogan Alls Well that Ends Well, and vit is not necessary to have apicture or guide such as in Fig. l of the iirst embodiment of thepuzzle. The letters on the puzzle are displayed thereon ina variety ofpositions to increase the dilculty of determining the position of aparticular piece. There are more letters than required to make the wordsappearing in Fig. 6.

Similarly, in Figs. '7 and 8 a different type of puzzle is illustratedin which the puzzle pieces 42 to 5I inclusive of Fig. '7 are combined toform the completed puzzle as in Fig. 8. In this case the puzzle pieceshave certain figures, such as the girl iigures shown, which appear inthe completed puzzle, whereas al1 the other figures, such as thecircular ligures shown on the puzzle pieces, are concealed in thecompleted puzzle. The object of this puzzle is to arrange the pieces sothat all of the circular guresare covered up whilevall of. the girlfigures yare visible in the completed puzzle.

In Figs. 9 and 10 the puzzle pieces identified as 52 to 6I inclusive inFig. 9 are assembled to complete the puzzle shown in Fig. 10. In thiscase a guide may be given showing that a cottage ligure is inqthe upperleft hand corner of the Acompleted puzzle While the man ligure is in thelower right hand corner of the completed puzzle and it is stated that inthe completed puzzle there will appear a continuous path from thecottage figure to the man ligure passing through eachofv the smallersquare units of area of the entire puzzle. It will be understood lthatthe paths appearing on-the individual vpuzzle pieces are more thansuiiicient to form the path shown in Fig. 10 and therefore that certainportions of the puzzle. pieces must be covered up by overlappingportions ofother pieces. f

When the completed puzzle forms a square any even number of pieces couldbe used. Thus, sixteen pieces could be combined into a square having?eight horizontal .and eight vertical strips, each strip being eighttimesas long as its width.

It Will'be understood that the puzzle need not be limited' to anembodiment in which the completed puzzle is square. The final form couldbe a rectangle, circle, triangle or other coniiguration'but insuch'cases the strips would not all be of the same size and shape andthe puzzle would be relatively more easy to'work out. Also it will beunderstood that in the square form of puzzle the strips need not runvertically and horizontally but couldl run diagonally of the square,being interweaved or interlapped in a similar manner. Here again thestrips would not all be of the'same size and shape. Since the puzzlestrips must be bent to interweave and intert, it is desirable that theybe made of some flexible material, for example, stiff paper orcardboard.

In making the puzzle initially, a plurality of strips could be cut tothe size and shape of the strips shown in Fig. 2. The strips could thenbe assembled in some haphazard interweaving and overlapping arrangement.The visible faces of the pieces are then marked to correspond tocorresponding portions of the picture or arrangement which is the objectof the puzzle. The pieces are then separated and the concealed portionsmarked to have false clues thereon. Reproductions of the puzzle stripsare made in any suitable manner.

We claim:

1.A puzzle comprising a plurality of separate strips all of the samesize and shape. each of said strips having indicia appearing thereon,only certain portions of saidindicia being required to work out thepuzzle and the remaining portions of said indicia affording false clues,the indicia which affords false clues being exactly similar to indiciadisplayed on othery pieces but in diierent relative position, saidstrips being designed for assembly by laying part of said strips in sideby side relationship and the remainder of said strips also in side byside relationship but crosswise with respect to the iirst mentionedstrips,

said crosswise strips being interwoven at least in part with the firstmentioned strips.

2. A puzzle comprising a plurality of separate strips all of the samesize and shape, each of said strips having letters thereon, said lettersbeing turned at variousangles with respect to any one side of the puzzlestrip and only certain of said letters being required to work out thepuzzle, said strips being designed for assembly by laying half of saidstrips in side by side relationship and the remaining half of saidstrips also in side by side relationship but crosswise with respect tosaid rst mentioned strips, said crosswise strips being interwoven atleast in part with the first mentioned strips whereby the letters whichare visible in the completed puzzle are arranged to form words.

B. A puzzle comprising a plurality of separate strips all of the samesize and shape, each of said strips having paths or portions of pathsappearing thereon, the paths being more than sufficient to properly workout the puzzle, certain portions of said paths being exactly duplicatedon more than one strip to afford a false clue as to which strip shouldbe used to display the duplicate portion of the pattern, said piecesbeing designed for assembly by laying half of said strips in side byside relationship and the remaining half of said strips also in side byside relationship but crosswise with respect to said first mentionedstrips to form a square, said crosswise strips being interwoven at leastin part with said first mentioned strips, the portions of the stripswhich remain visible in the completed puzzle displaying a continuouspath between at least A two corners of the square.

4. A puzzle comprising an even number of pieces, each piece consistingof a flexible rectangular strip, al1 of the pieces being of the samesize and shape, each strip having square units of area equal in numberto half the number of pieces, each strip having indicia applied to atleast one unit area thereof, the units of area to which said indicia isapplied being more than half the total unit area of all the pieces,certain of said indicia being displayed on more than one piece, thecompletion of the puzzle being carried out by selecting half of thepieces to be arranged horizontally in side-by-side relationship and theremaining half of the pieces to be arranged vertically in similarside-by-side relationship and interweaving the horizontal and verticalpieces in a definite but irregular pattern whereby the assembled piecesform a square the exposed face of which makes a desired complete designin which each piece of the puzzle has at least one unit area thereofexposed and at least one unit area thereof concealed by an overlappingpiece, certain of the indicia being applied to a piece in such a mannerthat the piece might be used in either a horizontal or vertical positionalthough there is only one correct position therefor, the indicia whichaffords a false clue as to the relative position of the .piece beingcovered up in the complete puzzle.

5.y A puzzle comprising an even number of pieces, each piece consistingof a exible strip rectangular in shape, all of the pieces being of thesame size and shape, the pieces being adapted to be assembled by layinghalf of the strips horizontally in side-by-side relationship and in adefinite order and the remaining half of the strips vertically insimilar side-by-side relationship and in a definite order andinterweaving the respective horizontal and vertical strips in a definitebut irregular pattern, whereby the exposed portions of the pieces in thecompleted puzzle form a square, each piece having indicia displayedthereon comprising fragmentary portions of the complete design appearingon the face of the completed puzzle, certain portions of said indiciabeing duplicated on more than one piece to aiord false clues as towhether a particular strip should be arranged horizontally orvertically, said indicia which constitutes a false clue being covered upby an overlapping strip in the completed puzzle.

6. A puzzle comprising a plurality of separate strips all of the samesize and shape, each of said strips having one or more gures appearingthereon, all of said figures being similar in appearance but beingarranged in a plurality of relative positions, only certain of saidfigures being required to work out the puzzle, said strips beingdesigned for assembly by laying half of said strips in sideby-siderelationship and the remaining half of said strips also in side-by-siderelationship but f crosswise with respect to said rst mentioned strips,said crosswise strips being interwoven at least in part with the rstmentioned strips whereby the figures which appear on the face of thecompleted puzzle are displayed in the desired pattern and the figureswhich are not used are concealed by overlapping strips.

FORREST B. MONROE.

EDWIN C. WHITTEMORE.

